Resource allocation signaling

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed a method of operating a radio node in a Radio Access Network, the method including communicating utilizing frequency resources based on allocation information received in a message, the message having an allocation information structure containing the allocation information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/739,725, filed on Jan. 10, 2020, entitled RESOURCE ALLOCATIONSIGNALING, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/402,431, filed on May 3, 2019, entitled RESOURCE ALLOCATIONSIGNALING, which claims priority to International Application Serial No.PCT/SE2017/050326, filed Mar. 31, 2017, the entireties of all of whichare incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure pertains to wireless communication technology, inparticular in the context of Radio Access Networks (RAN), e.g. for a3GPP 5th generation (5G) standard like New Radio (NR).

BACKGROUND

Modern wireless telecommunication systems, e.g. according to NR, arecapable of using wide frequency ranges for communication. A devicecommunicating utilizing such a system will use a part of the frequencyrange/s for transmitting and receiving according to a resourceallocation (or scheduled resources). Such allocation is usually signaledwith control signaling. It is challenging to define consistent controlsignaling that is able to flexibly cover wide frequency ranges whilehaving an acceptable level of signaling overhead.

SUMMARY

It is an object of the present disclosure to describe approaches ofutilizing consistent allocation signaling with limited overhead over awide range of frequencies, which at the same time allows flexibleallocation of resources, in particular considering different allocationsizes. The approaches described herein are particularly useful in thecontext of NR Radio Access Technology/Networks (NR RAT/RAN). Thus, anallocating radio node or a network node may in particular a gNB (or eNBin some cases).

Accordingly, there is described a method of operating a radio node in aRadio Access Network. The method comprises communicating utilizingfrequency resources based on allocation information received in amessage, the message having an allocation information structurecontaining the allocation information.

Moreover, a radio node for a Radio Access Network may be considered. Theradio node may be adapted for communicating utilizing frequencyresources based on allocation information received in a message, themessage having an allocation information structure containing theallocation information. The radio node may in particular be a userequipment or terminal, or more generally an allocated radio node, whichmay get resources allocated (configured) to it by another (allocating)radio node. Such an allocated radio node may for example be a relaynode, or a booster node or secondary node, for example in a dualconnectivity and/or heterogeneous network arrangement. The radio node orallocated radio node may comprise, and/or be adapted for utilizing,processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular a transmitterand/or receiver and/or transceiver, for communicating and/or receivingthe message. Alternatively, or additionally, the radio node may comprisea communicating module for communicating and/or a receiving module forreceiving the message.

Also, there is described a method of operating an allocating radio nodein a Radio Access Network. The method comprises transmitting a messagecomprising allocation information, the message having an allocationinformation structure containing the allocation information. The methodmay also comprise determining the allocation information, e.g. based onand/or in the context of scheduling one or more (allocated) radio nodes,which may be performed by the allocating radio node or another node.

Generally, scheduling may be seen as a process in which resources aredistributed for radio nodes and/or data streams (which may be associatedto radio nodes). In the context described here, allocating may pertainto informing a radio node about resources scheduled for it, e.g. bytransmitting the message comprising the allocation information.

An allocating radio node for a Radio Access Network may be considered.The allocating radio node is adapted for transmitting a messagecomprising allocation information, the message having an allocationinformation structure containing the allocation information. Theallocating radio node may comprise, and/or be adapted for utilizing,processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular a transmitterand/or transceiver, for transmitting the message and/or determining theallocation information. Alternatively, or additionally, the allocatingradio node may comprise a transmitting module for transmitting themessage and/or a determining module for determining the message. Theallocating radio node may in particular be a network node.

Allocation information may generally be considered a form of controlinformation. The message may be a control information message and/orrepresent control signaling. In particular, the message may beimplemented as Downlink Control Information (DCI) message, which may beconsidered to represent a downlink message containing controlinformation, in particular for NR. The allocation information may becontained in a single message, e.g. for a single allocation occurrence.In some variants, it may be considered that the message is a systemmessage (e.g., broadcast or multicast, for example in the context ofrandom access or sidelink resource allocation), or a RRC or MAC (MediumAccess Control) layer message. In the context of sidelink resourceallocation, the allocation may indicate frequency resources availablefor one or more pools, e.g. discovery and/or communication pools.

An allocation information structure may generally indicate anarrangement of information, e.g. in the form of bits, representing theallocation information. The structure may indicate the meaning and/orhow to interpret and/or to decode the bits to provide or retrieve theallocation information.

It may be considered that the allocation information structure comprisesa header containing header information and a bitmap containing mappinginformation. Header information and mapping information may beconsidered allocation information.

The header information may indicate a type of resource grouping used forallocation, and/or a location in a bandwidth or bandwidth representationto which the allocation information, in particular the mappinginformation, pertains. The header information may lead the mappinginformation, e.g. to facilitate correct coding or decoding. However, anyorder or distribution of header information and mapping information inthe message may be used, considering the order is defined and known,e.g. pre-defined and/or configured, to the radio node and/or theallocating radio node.

A location may indicate a part of the bandwidth of a specific size, andmay in some variants be continuous in frequency or discontinuous (splitin frequency). The size may correspond to the Wth part of the totalbandwidth/representation thereof (1/W of the bandwidth). W maycorrespond to the size of largest resource grouping type considereddivided by the size of the resource grouping type used for allocating(e.g., indicated by the header information). The resource grouping typeand the largest resource grouping type may be elements of a set ofresource grouping types.

Allocation information pertaining to a location may be considered to beinformation indicating which resource groupings of the type indicated inthe header information within the location are allocated (or notallocated) for communicating for the radio node. The groupings may beallocated, e.g., according to the mapping information, for example abitmap. In particular, each bit of the bitmap may be mapped to (e.g., adifferent) one of the groupings in the location, indicating whether theresources in the resource grouping are allocated.

According to approaches discussed herein, the part of the bandwidthallocatable with a single message may scale with the size of theresource grouping addressed, however the granularity may increase(corresponding to decreasing resolution) on the same scale.

Header information may generally be considered to indicate a combinationof location and associated resource grouping type, e.g. according to aprescribed (e.g., pre-defined or configured or default) scheme ofassociating location and types. Such a scheme may for examplerepresented in a table, e.g. a table similar to table 1. Multiplelocations may be associated to a resource grouping type, in particular Wlocations to a type (with W varying for types of different size). It maybe considered that the set of resource grouping types is represented bya set of locations, which may in particular represent all the locations(parts of the bandwidth) allocatable and/or addressable by the resourcegrouping types associated to the set. Each location of the set may berepresented by a bit combination of the header. The type may beimplicitly linked to the bit combination or order of locations. A tablemapping location (and implicitly or explicitly type) to a bitcombination of the header information may be considered. The table maybe available, e.g. pre-defined or configured and/or stored in memory,for the radio node or the allocating radio node (respectively circuitrythereof), e.g. for determining or decoding the allocation information.

It may be considered that additionally, header information may comprisea representation indication indicating whether (e.g., one bit) and/orwhich (e.g., multiple bits) bandwidth representation the allocationinformation pertains to, and/or which mapping is to be used to map therepresentation to the (physical) bandwidth.

The frequency resources may generally be comprised in a bandwidth, whichmay be a carrier bandwidth and/or system bandwidth and/or user equipmentbandwidth. The carrier bandwidth may be the bandwidth of the carrier tobe used for communicating, which may be an uplink or downlink carrier.The system bandwidth may be the bandwidth (e.g., on the carrier) theallocating radio node, and/or the RAN) may utilize and/or be adapted orconfigured for utilizing. A user equipment (UE) bandwidth (or, moregenerally, a radio node bandwidth), may be the bandwidth a radionode/user equipment is adapted and/or configured to use, e.g. accordingto its radio circuitry and/or according to a configuration. The UEbandwidth in some variants may be smaller than the system bandwidthand/or carrier bandwidth, e.g. due to limitation on circuitry of the UE.Similarly, the carrier bandwidth may differ from the system bandwidth,for example due to limitations on circuitry and/or according tooperational conditions. The bandwidth may generally be the bandwidthallocated for communicating and may be referred to as total bandwidth.It should be noted that this does not necessarily mean that the wholebandwidth is allocated to one radio node, or even to more than one radionode, but that frequency resources within the bandwidth are allocated.The bandwidth may represent the bandwidth available for communicating onthe associated carrier and/or for the system and/or UE or radio node.Differences in the bandwidth types may be corrected for in controlsignaling, in particular the allocation information, e.g. by notallocating certain resources not available for a radio node or UE.

Generally, the frequency resources may be comprised in a bandwidth, thebandwidth consisting of a number L of bandwidth elements (L may belarger than 1, and may e.g. be 100 or more). The bandwidth elements maycover a frequency interval around a central frequency, and/or beassociated to specific frequencies and/or subcarriers. The bandwidthelements may be non-overlapping and/or continuous (both may beconsidered for the physical bandwidth, for virtual representations, thebandwidth elements may at least be non-overlapping). The frequencyresources and/or bandwidth may generally be allocated for uplinktransmission, or downlink transmission (to be received by the radionode), or sidelink communication. In some cases, the resources and/orbandwidth may be allocated for two-directional communication, e.g. forsome Time Division Duplex (TDD) Cases, or when sharing a large bandwidthfor Frequency Division Duplex (FDD).

Generally, the allocation information structure may comprise a headerfor header information, the header information indicating at least oneresource grouping type to be allocated. The header information mayindicate exactly one resource grouping type. Allocation may be such thatfrequency resources are allocated in grouping/s of the indicated size.Alternatively, or additionally, the header information may indicate alocation of the indicated resource grouping or resource grouping type infrequency domain and/or inside the bandwidth or bandwidthrepresentation. This may be relative to the part of the bandwidth orrepresentation the resource grouping may cover. A location may representa frequency interval corresponding to the size of the resource groupingallocated. Locations (possible locations) for a resource grouping of agiven type may be non-overlapping in frequency domain. For example, fora resource grouping covering a quarter of the bandwidth representation,there may be considered 4 possible locations, which may be arrangedsuccessively in frequency domain such that they do not overlap (e.g.,only touch at frequency borders if at all).

Generally, the header may be determined based on allocation size (e.g.,total size or number of resources, e.g. elements or blocks) to beallocated, and/or operational conditions, and/or channels to beallocated for. Determining allocation information may comprisedetermining header information, and/or determining a bitmap as describedherein. The details of scheduling resources may be left forimplementation at an allocating radio node or scheduler.

Different resource groupings may in general have different sizes(referred to as, e.g., R), in particular in frequency domain. The size(in frequency domain) of a resource grouping (and/or its associatedtype) may be indicated by the associated frequency interval, and/or bythe bandwidth elements and/or subcarriers and/or resource elements) itcontains.

There may be considered a set of resource groupings or resource groupingtypes, which may comprise two or more of bandwidth element, bandwidthblock, one or more bandwidth block group/s. The set may be predefined,e.g. according to a standard, and/or configured, e.g. by an allocatingradio node or another network node. In some variants, the set may beconfigurable, such that e.g. at different times different sets underliethe resource allocation information.

It may be considered that generally the allocation information maypertain to frequency resources grouped in resource groupings of aspecific resource grouping type, the type being one of bandwidthelement, a bandwidth block comprising a plurality of bandwidth elements,and a bandwidth block group comprising a plurality of bandwidth blocks.

The header information may select and/or indicate one grouping type outof a set of resource grouping types. The header may have a size (inbits), which may be determined based on, and/or defined by, and/or be atleast, the minimum number of bits needed to represent the number ofelements of the set of resource groupings, and/or the number of possiblelocations (in the bandwidth/frequency domain) of the groupings in theset. The size of the largest resource grouping of the set may bereferred to as Rmax. In some cases, the largest resource grouping of theset may cover the (total) bandwidth (in frequency). The size of thesmallest resource grouping of the set may be referred to as Rmin. Thesmallest resource grouping may represent a block, in particular aresource block. However, in some variants the smallest resource groupingmay represent a bandwidth element. Any resource grouping having a sizesmaller than Rmax, may be referred to as subgroup, in particular if ithas a size larger than Rmin. The size of an allocation may berepresented by the bandwidth or resource elements allocated forcommunicating to a radio node, e.g. by the message. Depending on usecase, allocation sizes in particular for NR may vary over severalmagnitudes.

It should be noted that there may be different (bandwidth) block grouptypes defined, with different sizes. The size of a bandwidth block groupmay be indicated by the number of bandwidth elements and/or number ofbandwidth blocks it comprises. A bandwidth element may be represented bya subcarrier and/or resource element. A bandwidth block may berepresented by a block of subcarriers and/or a resource block. A blockmay generally comprise a plurality of elements (e.g., a bandwidth block,bandwidth elements, a resource block, resource elements). A block groupmay generally comprise a plurality of blocks, e.g. a resource blockgroup may comprise a plurality of resource blocks, etc.). The size of ablock (e.g., in terms of elements in the block) may be predefined, e.g.according to a standard and/or a default setting, and/or configurableand/or configured, e.g. by a radio node, in particular a network node.

Different types of groupings in a set of groupings or grouping types mayhave sizes relating to each other according to a power-law, e.g. K^(p),wherein K and P may be integers. K may in particular be 2. P may be 0for a bandwidth element, and larger than 0 for other groupings/groupingtypes. However, there may be considered cases in which the smallest typeof grouping in the set of groupings has a size (fixed and/or configuredor configurable) of A bandwidth elements, e.g. a block. Different blockgroups may follow a power-law as indicated herein, wherein K then maypertain to the number of bandwidth elements and/or the blocks in thegroups. In some variants, there may be power-laws with differentK-values for different block groups. A set of groupings may be orderedor orderable by size. In such a view, a set of groupings may include allpossible types of groupings according to the power-law having sizesbetween sizes of the maximum size block group and a minimum sizegrouping, e.g. a bandwidth element or bandwidth block. However, theremay be variants in which not all possible sizes according to thepower-law are present in the set. Generally, the size of a resourcegrouping may be considered to be the same as the size of an associatedtype of grouping. A set of resource groupings or types may be determinedsuch that they form layers of different sizes determined by a power-lawfrom layer to layer (the layers being ordered by size).

In some variants, the allocation information structure may comprise abitmap for mapping information, the mapping information mapping one ormore resource groupings to a bandwidth representation. The one or moreresource groupings may be of a resource grouping type of a set ofgroupings, as e.g. indicated by header information contained in themessage.

A bandwidth representation may represent the physical bandwidth, or avirtual representation of the physical bandwidth. In this latter case,utilizing the frequency resources may be based on mapping the bandwidthrepresentation to the physical bandwidth. With a suitable bandwidthrepresentation, frequency diversity and/or hopping may be arranged. Thebandwidth representation may be configured or configurable, and/or betime-dependent. The bitmap for mapping information may be in addition toa header as described herein, and/or may follow such a header.

The allocation information, in particular a bitmap, may indicate whichgrouping/s is/are allocated for communicating, and/or which is/are not.The bitmap may have a size B (in bits), which may be defined byceil(N/R). Generally, to each allocatable and/or addressable grouping,there may be associated one bit, which may indicate whether the groupingis allocated or not. N may be the number of groupings of the smallestgrouping type (of size Rmin, e.g. for a bandwidth block or resourceblock or an element) of the set of grouping types required to coverand/or to define the (total) bandwidth. R may be Rmax of the set. Thebitmap may be considered to map a 1/W part of the bandwidth for agrouping type having 1/W of the size of the largest grouping type(wherein W may in particular be a power of 2, or more generally, of K).

It may be considered that the allocation information structure maycomprise a header having M bits and/or a bitmap having B bits. M may beselected to represent, and/or to comprise at least enough (or exactlyenough) bits to represent, the number of possible groupings, and/or torepresent, and/or to comprise at least enough (or exactly enough) bitsto represent, the number of possible locations of all groupings of a setof resource groupings used for allocation signaling as described herein,or in some variants to represent both independently. B may be selectedto comprise at least enough bits to represent the (e.g., minimum) numberof groupings of the type with the largest size needed to cover theallocated bandwidth.

A location may generally be considered to represent a specific part ofthe bandwidth/representation in which resource groupings are allocated.Accordingly, a location may represent a part of frequency space, whichmay be continuous or non-continuous (e.g., split, having gaps infrequency). This part may be the total bandwidth for the largest sizedgrouping type, to smaller parts of the bandwidth for smaller sizegroupings. To each possible location (respectively associated bitrepresentation) there may be associated a type of grouping and/or agrouping type of specific size. With B bits in the bitmap, B resourcegroupings in a location may be addressed or allocated, such thatdepending on the size of the groupings as indicated by headerinformation, a location covering a specific part of the bandwidth orbandwidth representation may be allocated.

A set of resource groupings, and/or which groupings are in a set, and/orthe maximum size of a grouping type or grouping in the set (Rmax),and/or the minimum size (Rmin), and/or the number of groupings in a set,may be determined based on the bandwidth and/or associated carrierfrequency and/or numerology and/or spacing, and/or the direction ofcommunication and/or the type of communication (e.g., waveform, inparticular OFDM or SC-FDM), and/or the allocation size. Any one or anycombination of these set-related (or grouping-related) parameters may bepre-defined, e.g. according to a standard, and/or configured orconfigurable (e.g., within pre-defined options). Accordingly, the radionode and/or the allocating radio node (respectively the scheduler orscheduling network node) may, determine and/or detect such parameter/sbased on available communication parameters, such that for example noexplicit control signaling may be necessary, and/or higher-level controlsignaling, e.g. on the RRC layer (Radio Resource Control layer), and/orcontrol signaling during random access may suffice, which is usuallytransmitted less often than in particular DCI messages.

Allocation information may be valid for a given time interval, e.g. aslot and/or subframe and/or mini-slot and/or physical representation ofa transmission time interval. Allocation information indicatingallocation of resources for downlink (implying reception by the radionode) may be in the time interval comprising the allocated resources. Insome variants, this may be also valid for uplink allocation, however inmany cases, uplink allocation may pertain to a time interval after thetime interval the allocation information is received.

In general, the allocation information may be considered to allocatefrequency resources of a bandwidth to a radio node for communicating.Communicating may comprise transmitting (e.g., uplink or sidelink)and/or receiving (e.g., downlink or sidelink), according to theallocation information. Communicating utilizing frequency resources maycomprise transmitting on frequency resources allocated for transmitting,and/or receiving (and/or expecting to receive) on frequency resourcesallocated for receiving. It should be noted that allocating may comprisea time domain component, which is not specifically handled here, but maybe indicated in allocation information and/or the message. Communicatingmay be based on receiving and/or decoding the allocation information,and/or identifying the allocated frequency resources.

A program product comprising instructions causing processing circuitryto control and/or perform any one of the methods described herein isalso disclosed.

Moreover, there is disclosed a carrier medium arrangement carryingand/or storing a program product as disclosed herein.

The allocation information may generally have a structure as indicatedin one of the examples described herein.

A bandwidth representation may generally represent a virtual or physical(frequency) bandwidth. A virtual bandwidth may be mapped or mappable tothe physical bandwidth in an unambiguous and/or unique and/orwell-defined manner, e.g. based on a bandwidth representation map, whichmay be configured or configurable. A bandwidth representation may fullyrepresent the physical bandwidth, in particular such that all itsfrequencies are represented, e.g. such that frequency interval (e.g.,specific groupings associated to such intervals) represent physicalintervals of the same size (in frequency domain). The mapping between arepresentation and the physical bandwidth may be continuous, inparticular from one continuous frequency interval (e.g., comprisingbandwidth elements arranged in order according to frequency) to anothercontinuous frequency interval, the (physical) bandwidth. However, themapping may be such that it is non-continuous, such that (at least forsome) continuous frequency intervals and/or neighboring groupings(having no gaps between them) of the representation may be mapped todistributed and/or non-continuous and/or not neighboring groupings ofthe physical bandwidth. It should be noted that a physical bandwidth isa representation of itself, and/or may be represented based on anisomorphic continuous mapping (which may be without topological holes).

It should be noted that resource groupings as indicated by allocatinginformation may be associated to specific frequency ranges, with definedlower and/or upper frequencies boundaries, and/or at least in relationand/or within the bandwidth (e.g., in relation to a lower end of thebandwidth and/or upper end of the bandwidth, if not specifically to afrequency), whereas resource grouping types may generally refer tofrequency intervals having a given size (in frequency domain, e.g. awidth or range).

Communicating utilizing frequency resources may generally comprisemapping allocation information to physical frequency/ies.

The frequency resources utilized may be considered allocated resources.A frequency resource may generally be represented by a resourcegrouping.

The approaches described herein allow resource allocation over a widerange of bandwidths and with scalable granularity (depending on the sizeof the group type allocated), with a consistent approach to theallocation information structure.

A bandwidth element may represent a (frequency) bandwidth or a frequencyspectrum, respectively a part thereof. A bandwidth element may becontinuous in frequency domain, e.g. representing a frequency interval,for example an interval of a specific size. Generally, a bandwidthelement may generally be considered a representative of a bandwidth inany part of the frequency spectrum. However, a bandwidth element may beassociated to a frequency or a carrier, for example the frequency orcarrier may represent a central or representative frequency for abandwidth including the bandwidth element. A bandwidth may compriseand/or consist of one or more bandwidth elements. In general, abandwidth element may be considered the smallest addressable frequencyinterval of a bandwidth, e.g. addressable for use as a resource, and/oraddressable for signaling. Different bandwidth elements may havedifferent widths (in frequency). The width of a bandwidth element may bedependent on the carrier or frequency associated to it, and/or abandwidth spacing (e.g., subcarrier spacing) and/or a numerology usedfor the associated frequency or bandwidth. In some variants, for a givenfrequency or carrier (or numerology or spacing), respectively anassociated bandwidth, the bandwidth elements comprised therein orassociated thereto may have the same width. A bandwidth element may berepresented by a subcarrier or a resource element (respectively, thefrequency domain component thereof, which may correspond to asubcarrier).

Several types of (bandwidth) groupings are described herein. A groupingmay refer to a single element (e.g., bandwidth or resource element), ora block, e.g. a block of elements, wherein the block may cover afrequency range or interval corresponding to a plurality of elements, ora block group, comprising a plurality of blocks. Wherein the block groupmay cover a frequency range or interval corresponding to a plurality ofblock, respectively the associated elements. The frequency intervalcovered by each of these groupings may in some cases be continuous, inparticular pertaining to a bandwidth representation. However, in casesin which the bandwidth representation corresponds to a non-continuousmapping of grouping/s to (physical) bandwidth, the interval/s may bediscontinuous/distributed within the bandwidth.

A message containing allocation information may be considered a form ofallocation signaling (or control signaling).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings are provided to illustrate concepts and approachesdescribed herein, and are not intended to limit their scope. Thedrawings comprise:

FIG. 1, showing an example of RB allocation for R=4 and B=2;

FIG. 2, showing another example of RB allocation for R=4 and B=2;

FIG. 3, showing an exemplary radio node;

FIG. 4, showing an exemplary allocating radio node;

FIG. 5, showing an algorithmic diagram of an exemplary method ofoperating a radio node;

FIG. 6, showing an exemplary radio node;

FIG. 7, showing an algorithmic diagram of an exemplary method ofoperating an allocating radio node; and

FIG. 8, showing an exemplary allocating radio node.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

There are described approaches coupling the resolution of the bitmap forallocating resource groupings to the allocation size (size of thegrouping) such that, for small allocations, it is possible to indicateindividual blocks (or even elements) like RBs (or REs), while for largerallocations the bitmap refers to larger grouping, like block groups,e.g. RBGs. Accordingly, efficient usage of limited DCI resources isprovided, and consistent usage of allocating signaling may befacilitated.

An example is described, with the following assumptions

-   -   a total bandwidth (which the UE is capable of or configured to        receive or transmit upon) of N resource blocks (RBs) is        provided;    -   an (maximum) resource-block-group (RBG) size of R (Rmax) with R        (Rmax) being a power of two (this could for example be derived        from the UE or system bandwidth or carrier bandwidth); in this        context it should be noted that, if the value of the bandwidth        that is assumed is derived based on what the UE is configured        for (e.g., UE bandwidth), the value of R may change based on the        configuration of the value. Further, the UE could also assume        different values of R with different DCI messages, as not all        messages would potentially be able to address the full BW that        the UE can be allocated. It should also be noted that the value        could be different in UL and DL. It could further be different        in UL based on which wave form is used, i.e. if CP-OFDM or        SC-FDM is utilized.    -   a ‘header’ of M bits    -   a bitmap of B bits

To be able to address all the resource groupings, e.g. resource blocksrespectively RBGs, a bitmap B=ceil(N/R) is provided, in particular thereis one bit for each resource block, grouping or group. In this example,resource element-based allocation is disregarded. It should be notedthat the frequency components of the resource blocks discussed representbandwidth resource blocks.

The resource allocation is signaled to the UE using the size-M headerfollowed by the size-B bitmap, in total M+B bits. The resourceallocation is transmitted in a message, e.g. a DCI message.

In the following, it is referred to RBs and RBGs. However, these termsare merely intended to represent groupings like bandwidth blocks andresource block groups, and may be interchanged correspondingly.

The meaning/decoding of the resource allocation message can be describedusing a table, constructed along the following lines:

-   -   1. One entry where the size-B bitmap refers to RBGs of size Rmax        (which may be assumed to cover the total bandwidth if all are        allocated);    -   2. Two entries where the size-B bitmap refers to RBGs of size        Rmax/2;    -   a. the bitmap can address RBs or RBGs in half of the total        bandwidth, hence two entries are need, one for each half of the        total bandwidth (there are two possible locations);    -   3. Four entries where the size-B bitmap refers to RBGs of size        R/4 (having 4 possible locations)    -   a. the bitmap can address RBs in a quarter of the total        bandwidth;    -   4. Eight entries where the size-B bitmap refers to RBGs of size        R/8    -   5. ( . . . and so on until . . . )    -   6. R entries where the size-B bitmap refers to RBGs of size R/R,        i.e. individual RBs

The steps above can easily be described as a general algorithm, forexample as

-   -   1. Let n=0    -   2. Append 2^(n) rows to the table where, for each of the 2^(n)        rows, the bitmap refers to RBGs of size R/2^(n) and the rows        relate to different (non-overlapping) subgroups of RBGs    -   3. n=n+1    -   4. If R/2^(n)≥1 go to 2 (the algorithm could also be stopped        earlier, e.g. R/2^(n)≥2 or R/2^(n)≥4, if there is no need to        support individual RBs or pairs of RBs)

In step 2, the subgroups could be

-   -   All RBGs for n=0    -   Left half and right half for n=1. Alternatively, even and odd RB        or RBGs (representing discontinuous locations).    -   First, second, third, fourth quarter of RBGs for n=2.        Alternatively four different comb-4 with offsets 0, 1, 2, and 3        (also representing discontinuous locations. Other variants may        be considered. A table mapping locations (or locations and type)        to a bit combination may be determined and/or defined and/or        represented accordingly. The table may be indexed and/or mapped        to by header information.

An example for Rmax=8 is given in Table 1. In FIG. 1, an example forRmax=4, B=2 is given. For an LTE-like example of N=100 and Rmax=8, thebitmap would be of size 13 and the header of size 4, i.e. in total 17bits. This setup would allow allocations from a single RB up to all 100RBs.

RB subgroups (which may be groups of different sizes) may be contiguousor continuous in frequency, e.g. two neighboring resource blocks orgroups may be located next to each other in the physical frequencydomain (this may refer to a location, or in some cases, at least to thephysical frequency domain). In some variants, it may be useful toimprove the amount of frequency diversity, e.g. for some smallerallocations. This may for example be achieved by using locations splitin frequency.

It may be considered that the RBGs or RBs in the description above couldrefer to virtual resource blocks or groups, and a virtual-to-physicalmapping function could be used to describe the physical location. It maygenerally be considered that the frequency resources, respective thegroupings indicated by the allocation information, may pertain to abandwidth representation, which may a virtual representation. A bit inthe header could indicate whether the RB allocation refers to physicalor virtual resource blocks (or in the general case, multiple bits todescribe multiple virtual-to-physical RB mappings). Alternatively, themapping may be configured separately, e.g. with higher layer signalinglike RRC signaling or MAC signaling.

Additionally, or alternatively, groupings, at least groupings ofselected sizes and/or locations may be non-contiguous (ornon-continuous), as shown in FIG. 2. In this case, the headerinformation may comprise one or more extra bits to indicate whethercontiguous/continuous (FIG. 1) or non-contiguous/non-continuous (FIG. 2)groupings like RBGs are assumed. If no such extra bit is provided, thespecification of a standard (pre-defined), and/or a configuration (e.g.,higher layer configuration like RRC or MAC) may indicate if thesubgroups indicate virtual RBs or groupings, and/or localized physicalRB (FIG. 1), and/or distributed physical RB (FIG. 2).

If in above pseudo code the termination criteria “If R/2^(n)>1” isreplaced by If “R/2^(n)>2^(L)” the lowest RB granularity would be 2^(L)and not 1. Alternatively, the granularity could refer to a bandwidthelement as smallest grouping (instead of a block). In a furtheralternative, the block size (smallest grouping) may be configured and/orconfigurable, providing a large flexibility.

Above algorithm is described assuming that the PRB granularity is in theform 2^(L). However, the algorithm can be applied if RBG sizes are basedon another power, K^(r).

TABLE 1 Example of header sizes for R = 8. Number of Number of bitmapcombinations RBG size locations Resolution 1 8 1 8 RBs 2 4 2 4 RBs 4 2 42 RBs 8 1 8 1 RB Total 15 (4 bits header)

The resolution of allocation information (the bitmap) may be defined bythe size of the grouping used, which may be considered to represent theallocated size for each bit of the bitmap.

A method of operating an allocating radio node like a gNB or enB maycomprise, and/or such a node may be adapted for, configuring one or moreradio nodes (in particular UE/s) so that each UE has an aligned startingposition of its allocated bandwidth (BW) based on RBG size of thelargest RBG size (size of the largest grouping of the set) within theallocated BW part.

Signaling to setup which BW a radio node like a UE could be operating on(e.g., uplink signaling indicating the UE bandwidth, and/or controlsignaling configuring a carrier and/or system bandwidth and/or a UEbandwidth) may be based on the largest RBGs size (generally, Rmax of thelargest grouping), e.g. utilized from one of the system bandwidth edgesor a subcarrier within the BW, in particular the system BW. Thesubcarrier could for example be given by the SS block.

FIG. 3 schematically shows a radio node or terminal or wireless device10, which may in particular be implemented as a UE (User Equipment).Radio node 10 comprises processing circuitry (which may also be referredto as control circuitry) 20, which may comprise a controller connectedto a memory. Any module of the radio node 10, e.g. a transmitting moduleor receiving module, may be implemented in and/or executable by, theprocessing circuitry 20, in particular as module in the controller.Radio node 10 also comprises radio circuitry 22 providing receiving andtransmitting or transceiving functionality (e.g., one or moretransmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers), the radio circuitry22 being connected or connectable to the processing circuitry. Anantenna circuitry 24 of the radio node 10 is connected or connectable tothe radio circuitry 22 to collect or send and/or amplify signals. Radiocircuitry 22 and the processing circuitry 20 controlling it areconfigured for cellular communication with a network, e.g. a RAN asdescribed herein. Radio node 10 may generally be adapted to carry outany of the methods of operating a radio node like terminal or UEdisclosed herein; in particular, it may comprise correspondingcircuitry, e.g. processing circuitry, and/or modules.

FIG. 4 schematically show an allocating radio node 100, which may inparticular be implemented as a network node 100, for example an eNB orgNB or similar for NR. Allocating radio node 100 comprises processingcircuitry (which may also be referred to as control circuitry) 120,which may comprise a controller connected to a memory. Any module, e.g.transmitting module and/or receiving module and/or configuring module ofthe node 100 may be implemented in and/or executable by the processingcircuitry 120. The processing circuitry 120 is connected to controlradio circuitry 122 of the node 100, which provides receiver andtransmitter and/or transceiver functionality (e.g., comprising one ormore transmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers). An antennacircuitry 124 may be connected or connectable to radio circuitry 122 forsignal reception or transmittance and/or amplification. Node 100 may beadapted to carry out any of the methods for operating an allocatingradio node disclosed herein; in particular, it may comprisecorresponding circuitry, e.g. processing circuitry, and/or modules. Theantenna 124 circuitry may be connected to and/or comprise an antennaarray. The node 100, respectively its circuitry, may be adapted totransmit configuration data and/or to configure a radio node liketerminal or UE as described herein.

FIG. 5 shows an algorithmic diagram of an exemplary method of operatinga radio node, which may be any of the (allocated) radio nodes describedherein. The method may comprise an action TS10 of communicatingutilizing frequency resources as described herein.

FIG. 6 shows an exemplary radio node, which may be any of the(allocated) radio nodes described herein. The radio node comprises acommunicating module TM10 for performing action TS10.

FIG. 7 shows an algorithmic diagram of an exemplary method of operatingan allocating radio node, which may be any of the allocating radio nodesdescribed herein. The method may comprise an action NS10 of transmittinga message comprising allocation information as described herein.

FIG. 8 shows an exemplary allocating radio node, which may be any of theallocating radio nodes described herein. The radio node comprises atransmitting module NM10 for performing action NS10.

There is generally considered a program product comprising instructionsadapted for causing processing and/or control circuitry to carry outand/or control any method described herein, in particular when executedon the processing and/or control circuitry. Also, there is considered acarrier medium arrangement carrying and/or storing a program product asdescribed herein.

A carrier medium arrangement may comprise one or more carrier media.Generally, a carrier medium may be accessible and/or readable and/orreceivable by processing or control circuitry. Storing data and/or aprogram product and/or code may be seen as part of carrying data and/ora program product and/or code. A carrier medium generally may comprise aguiding/transporting medium and/or a storage medium. Aguiding/transporting medium may be adapted to carry and/or carry and/orstore signals, in particular electromagnetic signals and/or electricalsignals and/or magnetic signals and/or optical signals. A carriermedium, in particular a guiding/transporting medium, may be adapted toguide such signals to carry them. A carrier medium, in particular aguiding/transporting medium, may comprise the electromagnetic field,e.g. radio waves or microwaves, and/or optically transmissive material,e.g. glass fiber, and/or cable. A storage medium may comprise at leastone of a memory, which may be volatile or non-volatile, a buffer, acache, an optical disc, magnetic memory, flash memory, etc.

In general, a numerology and/or subcarrier spacing may indicate thebandwidth (in frequency domain) of a subcarrier of a carrier, and/or thenumber of subcarriers in a carrier and/or the numbering of thesubcarriers in a carrier. Different numerologies may in particular bedifferent in the bandwidth of a subcarrier. In some variants, all thesubcarriers in a carrier have the same bandwidth associated to them. Thenumerology and/or subcarrier spacing may be different between carriersin particular regarding the subcarrier bandwidth. A symbol time length,and/or a time length of a timing structure pertaining to a carrier maybe dependent on the carrier frequency, and/or the subcarrier spacing.

Signaling may generally comprise one or more symbols and/or signalsand/or messages. A signal may comprise one or more bits. An indicationmay represent signaling, and/or be implemented as a signal, or as aplurality of signals. One or more signals may be included in and/orrepresented by a message. Signaling, in particular acknowledgementsignaling, may comprise a plurality of signals and/or messages, whichmay be transmitted on different carriers and/or be associated todifferent acknowledgement signaling processes, e.g. representing and/orpertaining to one or more such processes. An indication, may comprisesignaling and/or a plurality of signals and/or messages and/or may becomprised therein, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/orbe associated to different acknowledgement signaling processes, e.g.representing and/or pertaining to one or more such processes.

An indication generally may explicitly and/or implicitly indicate theinformation it represents and/or indicates. Implicit indication may forexample be based on position and/or resource used for transmission.Explicit indication may for example be based on a parametrization withone or more parameters, and/or one or more index or indices, and/or oneor more bit patterns representing the information. Header informationand/or mapping information may be considered examples of explicitindications.

A radio node may generally be considered a device or node adapted forwireless and/or radio (and/or microwave) frequency communication, and/orfor communication utilizing an air interface, e.g. according to acommunication standard.

A radio node may be a network node, or a user equipment or terminal. Anetwork node may be any radio node of a wireless communication network,e.g. a base station and/or gNodeB (gNB) and/or relay node and/ormicro/nano/pico/femto node and/or other node, in particular for a RAN asdescribed herein.

The terms wireless device, user equipment (UE) and terminal may beconsidered to be interchangeable in the context of this disclosure. Awireless device, user equipment or terminal may represent and end devicefor communication utilizing the wireless communication network, and/orbe implemented as a user equipment according to a standard. Examples ofuser equipments may comprise a phone like a smartphone, a personalcommunication device, a mobile phone or terminal, a computer, inparticular laptop, a sensor or machine with radio capability (and/oradapted for the air interface), in particular for MTC(Machine-Type-Communication, sometimes also referred to M2M,Machine-To-Machine), or a vehicle adapted for wireless communication. Auser equipment or terminal may be mobile or stationary.

A radio node may generally comprise processing circuitry and/or radiocircuitry. Circuitry may comprise integrated circuitry. Processingcircuitry may comprise one or more processors and/or controllers (e.g.,microcontrollers), and/or ASICs (Application Specific IntegratedCircuitry) and/or FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array), or similar. Itmay be considered that processing circuitry comprises, and/or is(operatively) connected or connectable to one or more memories or memoryarrangements. A memory arrangement may comprise one or more memories. Amemory may be adapted to store digital information. Examples formemories comprise volatile and non-volatile memory, and/or Random AccessMemory (RAM), and/or Read-Only-Memory (ROM), and/or magnetic and/oroptical memory, and/or flash memory, and/or hard disk memory, and/orEPROM or EEPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM or Electrically ErasableProgrammable ROM). Radio circuitry may comprise one or more transmittersand/or receivers and/or transceivers (a transceiver may operate or beoperable as transmitter and receiver, and/or may comprise joint orseparated circuitry for receiving and transmitting, e.g. in one packageor housing), and/or may comprise one or more amplifiers and/oroscillators and/or filters, and/or may comprise, and/or be connected orconnectable to antenna circuitry and/or one or more antennas.

Any one or all of the modules disclosed herein may be implemented insoftware and/or firmware and/or hardware. Different modules may beassociated to different components of a radio node, e.g. differentcircuitries or different parts of a circuitry. It may be considered thata module is distributed over different components and/or circuitries.

A radio access network may be a wireless communication network, and/or aRadio Access Network (RAN) in particular according to a communicationstandard. A communication standard may in particular a standardaccording to 3GPP and/or 5G, e.g. according to NR or LTE, in particularLTE Evolution.

A wireless communication network may be and/or comprise a Radio AccessNetwork (RAN), which may be and/or comprise any kind of cellular and/orwireless radio network, which may be connected or connectable to a corenetwork. The approaches described herein are particularly suitable for a5G network, e.g. LTE Evolution and/or NR (New Radio), respectivelysuccessors thereof. A RAN may comprise one or more network nodes. Anetwork node may in particular be a radio node adapted for radio and/orwireless and/or cellular communication with one or more terminals. Aterminal may be any device adapted for radio and/or wireless and/orcellular communication with or within a RAN, e.g. a user equipment (UE)or mobile phone or smartphone or computing device or vehicularcommunication device or device for machine-type-communication (MTC),etc. A terminal may be mobile, or in some cases stationary.

Transmitting in downlink may pertain to transmission from the network ornetwork node to the terminal. Transmitting in uplink may pertain totransmission from the terminal to the network or network node.Transmitting in sidelink may pertain to transmission from on terminal toanother. Uplink, downlink and sidelink (e.g., sidelink transmission andreception) may be considered communication directions.

Signaling may generally comprise one or more signals and/or one or moresymbols. Reference signaling may comprise one or more reference signalsor symbols.

Control information or a control information message or correspondingsignaling (control signaling) may be transmitted on a control channel,e.g. a physical control channel, which may be a downlink channel or (ora sidelink channel in some cases, e.g. one UE scheduling another UE).For example, control information/allocation information may be signaledby a network node on PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) and/or aPDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel.Acknowledgement signaling, e.g. as a form of uplink control information,may be transmitted by a terminal on a PUCCH (Physical Uplink ControlChannel) and/or PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel) and/or aHARQ-specific channel. Multiple channels may apply formulti-component/multi-carrier indication or signaling.

Control information may in particular pertain to information indicatingresources, e.g. resources (one or more thereof), which may be allocatedor scheduled resources, in particular allocated to or scheduled for adevice intended as target of the control information, like a terminal orUE. Such control information may also be referred to as allocationinformation. The resources may in particular comprise frequencyresources, e.g. for uplink and/or downlink and/or sidelink, and/or timedomain resources, and/or power resources (e.g., in the context of powercontrol, in particular transmission power control) and/or coderesources. Control information may indicate a modulation and/or codingscheme (MCS) used for transmission, e.g. to enable decoding oftransmissions to be received, and/or to use for transmission by thedevice receiving the control information, e.g. for uplink or sidelinktransmission. Downlink control information may in particular allocateresources for a target (e.g., a radio node) like a UE or terminal, inparticular resources for downlink communication (reception of downlinktransmission/s or data) and/or for uplink communication (transmission ofuplink transmission/s or data) and/or for sidelink communication(transmission and/or reception of sidelink transmission/s or data).

For allocation of resources in different communication directions,different messages, in particular, different downlink control messagesmay be used. However, there may be considered cases in which one messageindicates allocation of resources for at least two directions, e.g.uplink and downlink, or sidelink transmission and reception, etc.Different resource groupings allocated in the same message may beallocated for different directions. A message may be considered toallocate a resource grouping, if it indicates that the resource grouping(e.g., in a specific location or part of the bandwidth) is allocatedand/or comprises resources for communicating by the radio node.

A resource element may generally describe the smallest individuallyusable and/or encodable and/or decodable and/or modulatable and/ordemodulatable time-frequency resource, and/or may describe atime-frequency resource covering a symbol time length in time and asubcarrier in frequency. A signal may be allocatable and/or allocated toa resource element. A subcarrier may be a subband of a carrier, e.g. asdefined by a standard. A carrier may define a frequency and/or frequencyband for transmission and/or reception. In some variants, a signal(jointly encoded/modulated) may cover more than one resource elements. Aresource element may generally be as defined by a correspondingstandard, e.g. NR or LTE. As symbol time length and/or subcarrierspacing (and/or numerology) may be different between different symbolsand/or subcarriers, different resource elements may have differentextension (length/width) in time and/or frequency domain, in particularresource elements pertaining to different carriers.

Allocation information may pertain to a specific bandwidth and/orcarrier and/or carrier aggregation, e.g. directly or in the context of abandwidth representation and/or virtual-to-physical mapping. A bandwidthmay pertain to the carrier or carriers of the aggregation.

A resource generally may represent a time-frequency resource, on whichsignaling, e.g. according to a specific format, may be communicated, forexample transmitted and/or received, and/or be intended for transmissionand/or reception.

Configuring a radio node, in particular a terminal or user equipment,may refer to the radio node being adapted or caused or set to operateaccording to the configuration. Configuring may be done by anotherdevice, e.g., a network node (for example, a radio node of the networklike a base station or eNodeB) or network, in which case it may comprisetransmitting configuration data to the radio node to be configured. Suchconfiguration data may represent the configuration to be configuredand/or comprise one or more instruction pertaining to a configuration,e.g. a configuration for transmitting and/or receiving on allocatedresources, in particular frequency resources. A radio node may configureitself, e.g., based on configuration data received from a network ornetwork node. A network node may utilize, and/or be adapted to utilize,its circuitry/ies for configuring. Allocation information may beconsidered a form of configuration data.

Generally, configuring may include determining configuration datarepresenting the configuration and providing it to one or more othernodes (parallel and/or sequentially), which may transmit it further tothe radio node (or another node, which may be repeated until it reachesthe wireless device). Alternatively, or additionally, configuring aradio node, e.g., by a network node or other device, may includereceiving configuration data and/or data pertaining to configurationdata, e.g., from another node like a network node, which may be ahigher-level node of the network, and/or transmitting receivedconfiguration data to the radio node. Accordingly, determining aconfiguration and transmitting the configuration data to the radio nodemay be performed by different network nodes or entities, which may beable to communicate via a suitable interface, e.g., an X2 interface inthe case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR. Configuring aterminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissionsfor the terminal, e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signalingand/or DCI and/or uplink signaling, in particular acknowledgementsignaling, and/or configuring resources and/or a resource pool therefor.

A carrier may generally represent a frequency range or band and/orpertain to a central frequency and an associated frequency interval. Itmay be considered that a carrier comprises a plurality of subcarriers. Acarrier may have assigned to it a central frequency or center frequencyinterval, e.g. represented by one or more subcarriers (to eachsubcarrier there may be generally assigned a frequency bandwidth orinterval). Different carriers may be non-overlapping, and/or may beneighboring in frequency domain.

It should be noted that the term “radio” in this disclosure may beconsidered to pertain to wireless communication in general, and may alsoinclude wireless communication utilizing microwave and/or millimeterand/or other frequencies, in particular between 100 MHz or 1 GHz, and100 GHz or 20 or 10 GHz. Such communication may utilize one or morecarriers.

A radio node, in particular a network node or a terminal, may generallybe any device adapted for transmitting and/or receiving radio and/orwireless signals and/or data, in particular communication data, inparticular on at least one carrier. The at least one carrier maycomprise a carrier accessed based on a LBT procedure (which may becalled LBT carrier), e.g., an unlicensed carrier. It may be consideredthat the carrier is part of a carrier aggregate.

Receiving or transmitting on a cell or carrier may refer to receiving ortransmitting utilizing a frequency (band) or spectrum associated to thecell or carrier. A cell may generally comprise and/or be defined by orfor one or more carriers, in particular at least one carrier for ULcommunication/transmission (called UL carrier) and at least one carrierfor DL communication/transmission (called DL carrier). It may beconsidered that a cell comprises different numbers of UL carriers and DLcarriers. Alternatively, or additionally, a cell may comprise at leastone carrier for UL communication/transmission and DLcommunication/transmission, e.g., in TDD-based approaches.

A channel may generally be a logical, transport or physical channel. Achannel may comprise and/or be arranged on one or more carriers, inparticular a plurality of subcarriers.

In general, a symbol may represent and/or be associated to a symbol timelength, which may be dependent on the carrier and/or subcarrier spacingand/or numerology of the associated carrier. Accordingly, a symbol maybe considered to indicate a time interval having a symbol time length inrelation to frequency domain. A symbol time length may be dependent on acarrier frequency and/or bandwidth and/or numerology and/or subcarrierspacing of or associated to a symbol. Accordingly, different symbols mayhave different symbol time lengths.

A sidelink may generally represent a communication channel (or channelstructure) between two UEs and/or terminals, in which data istransmitted between the participants (UEs and/or terminals) via thecommunication channel, e.g. directly and/or without being relayed via anetwork node. A sidelink may be established only and/or directly via airinterface/s of the participant, which may be directly linked via thesidelink communication channel. In some variants, sidelink communicationmay be performed without interaction by a network node, e.g. on fixedlydefined resources and/or on resources negotiated between theparticipants. Alternatively, or additionally, it may be considered thata network node provides some control functionality, e.g. by configuringresources, in particular one or more resource pool/s, for sidelinkcommunication, and/or monitoring a sidelink, e.g. for charging purposes.

Sidelink communication may also be referred to as device-to-device (D2D)communication, and/or in some cases as ProSe (Proximity Services)communication, e.g. in the context of LTE. A sidelink may be implementedin the context of V2x communication (Vehicular communication), e.g. V2V(Vehicle-to-Vehicle), V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) and/or V2P(Vehicle-to-Person). Any device adapted for sidelink communication maybe considered a user equipment or terminal.

A sidelink communication channel (or structure) may comprise one or more(e.g., physical or logical) channels, e.g. a PSCCH (Physical SidelinkControl CHannel, which may for example carry control information like anacknowledgement position indication, and/or a PSSCH (Physical SidelinkShared CHannel, which for example may carry data and/or acknowledgementsignaling). It may be considered that a sidelink communication channel(or structure) pertains to and/or used one or more carrier/s and/orfrequency range/s associated to, and/or being used by, cellularcommunication, e.g. according to a specific license and/or standard.Participants may share a (physical) channel and/or resources, inparticular in frequency domain and/or related to a frequency resourcelike a carrier) of a sidelink, such that two or more participantstransmit thereon, e.g. simultaneously, and/or time-shifted, and/or theremay be associated specific channels and/or resources to specificparticipants, so that for example only one participant transmits on aspecific channel or on a specific resource or specific resources, e.g.,in frequency domain and/or related to one or more carriers orsubcarriers.

A sidelink may comply with, and/or be implemented according to, aspecific standard, e.g. a LTE-based standard and/or NR. A sidelink mayutilize TDD (Time Division Duplex) and/or FDD (Frequency DivisionDuplex) technology, e.g. as configured by a network node, and/orpreconfigured and/or negotiated between the participants. A userequipment may be considered to be adapted for sidelink communication ifit, and/or its radio circuitry and/or processing circuitry, is adaptedfor utilizing a sidelink, e.g. on one or more frequency ranges and/orcarriers and/or in one or more formats, in particular according to aspecific standard. It may be generally considered that a Radio AccessNetwork is defined by two participants of a sidelink communication.Alternatively, or additionally, a Radio Access Network may berepresented, and/or defined with, and/or be related to a network nodeand/or communication with such a node.

Communication or communicating may generally comprise transmittingand/or receiving signaling. Communication on a sidelink (or sidelinksignaling) may comprise utilizing the sidelink for communication(respectively, for signaling). Sidelink transmission and/or transmittingon a sidelink may be considered to comprise transmission utilizing thesidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/orcircuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink reception and/or receivingon a sidelink may be considered to comprise reception utilizing thesidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/orcircuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink control information (e.g.,SCI) may generally be considered to comprise control informationtransmitted utilizing a sidelink.

Generally, carrier aggregation (CA) may refer to the concept of a radioconnection and/or communication link between a wireless and/or cellularcommunication network and/or network node and a terminal or on asidelink comprising a plurality of carriers for at least one directionof transmission (e.g. DL and/or UL), as well as to the aggregate ofcarriers. A corresponding communication link may be referred to ascarrier aggregated communication link or CA communication link; carriersin a carrier aggregate may be referred to as component carriers (CC). Insuch a link, data may be transmitted over more than one of the carriersand/or all the carriers of the carrier aggregation (the aggregate ofcarriers). A carrier aggregation may comprise one (or more) dedicatedcontrol carriers and/or primary carriers (which may e.g. be referred toas primary component carrier or PCC), over which control information maybe transmitted, wherein the control information may refer to the primarycarrier and other carriers, which may be referred to as secondarycarriers (or secondary component carrier, SCC). However, in someapproaches, control information may be sent over more than one carrierof an aggregate, e.g. one or more PCCs and one PCC and one or more SCCs.

In this disclosure, for purposes of explanation and not limitation,specific details are set forth (such as particular network functions,processes and signaling steps) in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the technique presented herein. It will be apparent toone skilled in the art that the present concepts and aspects may bepracticed in other variants and variants that depart from these specificdetails.

For example, the concepts and variants are partially described in thecontext of Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) or NewRadio mobile or wireless communications technologies; however, this doesnot rule out the use of the present concepts and aspects in connectionwith additional or alternative mobile communication technologies such asthe Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). While the followingvariants will partially be described with respect to certain TechnicalSpecifications (TSs) of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP),it will be appreciated that the present concepts and aspects could alsobe realized in connection with different Performance Management (PM)specifications.

Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the services,functions and steps explained herein may be implemented using softwarefunctioning in conjunction with a programmed microprocessor, or using anApplication Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Digital SignalProcessor (DSP), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or generalpurpose computer. It will also be appreciated that while the variantsdescribed herein are elucidated in the context of methods and devices,the concepts and aspects presented herein may also be embodied in aprogram product as well as in a system comprising control circuitry,e.g. a computer processor and a memory coupled to the processor, whereinthe memory is encoded with one or more programs or program products thatexecute the services, functions and steps disclosed herein.

It is believed that the advantages of the aspects and variants presentedherein will be fully understood from the foregoing description, and itwill be apparent that various changes may be made in the form,constructions and arrangement of the exemplary aspects thereof withoutdeparting from the scope of the concepts and aspects described herein orwithout sacrificing all of its advantageous effects. The aspectspresented herein can be varied in many ways.

Some useful abbreviations comprise

Abbreviation Explanation ACK Acknowledgment ARI ACK/NACK ResourceIndicator CCE Control Channel Element DCI Downlink Control InformationDL Downlink DTX Discontinues Transmission HARQ Hybrid Automatic RepeatRequest MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output NACK Negative AcknowledgmentOFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing PAPR Peak to AveragePower Ratio PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel PUCCH PhysicalUplink Control Channel RE Resource Element RB Resource Block RBGResource Block Group RRC Radio Resource Control SC-FDM Single-CarrierFrequency Division Multiplexing SI Sidelink UL Uplink

1. A method of operating a user equipment (UE) in a New Radio (NR) RadioAccess Network, the method comprising: receiving downlink data utilizingallocated frequency resources based on allocation information receivedin a Downlink Control Information (DCI) message having an allocationinformation structure comprising a bitmap of B bits containing mappinginformation, the frequency resources being in a bandwidth of N resourceblocks in frequency domain for receiving the downlink data, thebandwidth being a specific part of the carrier bandwidth configured tothe UE, the mapping information pertaining to the specific part of thecarrier bandwidth; a resource block group (RBG) size R in frequencydomain being associated to the specific part of the carrier bandwidth, Rrepresenting the number of resource blocks in an RBG, R being dependenton the specific part of the carrier bandwidth configured to the UE, Rhaving a value of a power of 2, R being associated to the specific partof the carrier bandwidth according to a configured scheme, and R beingan element of a set of RBG sizes, the RBG sizes of the set relating toeach other according to a power of 2; and each bit of the B bits of thebit map being mapped to a different RBG of size R to indicate whetherthe RBG is allocated as frequency resource for reception or not.
 2. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein different values of R areassociated with different DCI messages.
 3. The method according to claim1, wherein R is different from a size of RBGs used for allocation offrequency resources for transmission of uplink communication.
 4. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the allocation informationstructure comprises a header containing header information of M bits,the header information indicating the specific part of the carrierbandwidth to which the mapping information pertains.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 4, wherein the header implicitly indicates R.
 6. Themethod according to claim 5, wherein each specific part of the carrierbandwidth of a set of specific parts of the carrier bandwidth isrepresented by a possible bit combination of the header.
 7. The methodaccording to claim 6, wherein R is implicitly linked to the bitcombination of the header.
 8. A user equipment (UE) for a New Radio (NR)Radio Access network, the user equipment comprising processing circuitryand radio circuitry, and being configured to utilize the processingcircuitry and radio circuitry to: receive downlink data utilizingallocated frequency resources based on allocation information receivedin a Downlink Control Information (DCI) message having an allocationinformation structure comprising a bitmap of B bits containing mappinginformation, the frequency resources being in a bandwidth of N resourceblocks in frequency domain for receiving the downlink data, thebandwidth being a specific part of the carrier bandwidth configured tothe UE, the mapping information pertaining to the specific part of thecarrier bandwidth; a resource block group (RBG) size R in frequencydomain being associated to the specific bandwidth part, R representingthe number of resource blocks in an RBG, R being dependent on thespecific part of the carrier bandwidth configured to the UE, R having avalue of a power of 2, R being associated to the specific part of thecarrier bandwidth according to a configured scheme, and R being anelement of a set of RBG sizes, the RBG sizes of the set relating to eachother according to a power of 2; and each bit of the B bits of the bitmap being mapped to a different RBG of size R to indicate whether theRBG is allocated as frequency resource for reception or not.
 9. The userequipment according to claim 8, wherein different values of R areassociated with different DCI messages.
 10. The user equipment accordingto claim 8, wherein R is different from a size of RBGs used forallocation of frequency resources for transmission of downlinkcommunication.
 11. The user equipment according to claim 8, wherein theallocation information structure comprises a header containing headerinformation of M bits, the header information indicating the specificpart of the carrier bandwidth to which the mapping information pertains.12. The user equipment according to claim 11, wherein the headerimplicitly indicates R.
 13. The user equipment according to claim 12,wherein each specific part of the carrier bandwidth of a set of specificparts of the carrier bandwidth is represented by a possible bitcombination of the header.
 14. The user equipment according to claim 13,wherein R is implicitly linked to the bit combination of the header.